The Telsa Meme God has spoken. Elon Musk has recently tweeted his disgust for the Rings of Power series, which was created by his arch-rival, Jeff Bezos’s, Amazon, saying that ‘Tolkien is turning in his grave’.
Alright, I have to say that this war between Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk is hilarious. A rivalry between the world’s two wealthiest businessmen, with each outdoing each other’s achievements and insulting the other’s failures (such as the Amazon and SpaceX space race, Amazon’s business practices, and other problems that only billionaires have), is something only the WWE could have thought of.
It’s just that ridiculously of a storyline.
And this newest dig has lived up to the long list of insults the pair has thrown at one another. Adapting the works of J.R.R Tolkien and launching Amazon Prime as the world’s biggest entertainment streaming service has long been a goal of Bezos, especially since he’s a self-purported lifelong Tolkien fan.
Just as Blue Origin, the space company Bezos created out of his love of outer space, Rings of Power and Amazon Studios was Bezos creation for his life-long love of Tolkien.
And now Elon Musk is clowning on that dream too.
Adding his criticisms to the overwhelming responses of negative fan feedback, Elon Musk has said that not only is ‘Tolkin turning in his grave’, but also that ‘Almost every male character so far is a coward, a jerk or both. Only Galadriel is brave, smart and nice’, which has also been pointed out by the many critics.
Now, does Elon Musk really dislike this show just based off its merits? I don’t have any evidence to the contrary, but his rivarly with Bezos cannot be forgotten when reading his criticisms of an Amazon-based product.
I’m not saying that Musk is lying about his opinions, though I am saying that he’s not the most unbiased source when it comes to the Rings of Power.
Anyway, Musk’s criticisms are valid as the show has, to this point, failed to characterize many of its key characters properly. Like I said in my review of Episode 1 and 2, I don’t think the show is nearly as bad as some people are making it out to be, but I also don’t think it’s good enough to justify $1B being spent on it.
(Amazon-Lord of the Rings-The Rings of Power-SDCC Trailer)
I put the first two episodes as a combined 8.5/10 (though, the more I rewatch the episodes, the more I’m tempted to lower that score), but this show needed to be a 9.5 or even a 10/10 to justify a $1B budget. An 8.5/10, coming from a casual fan, is not good enough.
And, with House of the Dragon continuing to blow expectations, ratings, and its viewership records out of the water (last episode had over 25M households watching), Musk’s criticisms of the show may be a bit too accurate for Amazon’s likening.
Images Source: Featured Image: (Wikimedia Creative Commons License/Author: Heisenberg Media) (Heisenberg Media, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
In Text Image 1: (Amazon) (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – SDCC Trailer – YouTube)
